dinking with PP - help!

I took some photos of a friend the other day and i've been playing with PP a lot - never really "content" with anything and i'm always tweaking..

here's some basic Lr stuff

It's hard to choose on any justiable grounds, though I personally like the tones in #2 - often process towards a similar outcome. Still, the issues with the image are more compositional than in the PP itself... either way you've still got to deal with a huge strip of sky plastered across the top, the bottom edge coincident with the top of her head. It's almost giving an "aura" effect: the light of consciousness streaming upward - not sure that's thematically coherent, but it depends what you're seeking to portray. Of course it draw the eye upwards and there's no saving it from hitting the edge of frame - always a challenging thing to pull off. The bottom edge is quite aggressively cropped too - no connection to the ground and fairly frontal, so there's less connection to the background (especially with the strong colour differential) and less sense of depth and progression into the image, but still some... it leads very low into the bottom right corner though - with that corner being dark too, it's kind an effort to wrench the view back up into the open area above it. The eye's also taken to the right hand, which isn't tucked in somewhere the eye naturally keeps moving from, and being partially obscured is a little frustrating.

IQ generally looks good, sharp without looking forced, though less detail in the necklace than ideal... was it a little blown too? Maybe it's just too small after resizing, but the curvature of individual beads isn't evident and it's kind of distracting.

Cheers,
Tony

" I think the exposure fusion creates more detail"
It does not help the background of this image. If you can selsectivly apply it to the model it may work.

Although I like the PP look overall, it brings out the details in the hair and makes her look like she's having a really bad hair day.

I like the first one more. It softens her feminine features... although I would suggest a selective adjustment on levels around the top of her head/face to bring back some detail, and add a vinette to create more focus in the center... plus a small sharpening. You might also want to edit out the hair strands that cross her cheek.

Thnaks guys. I was not crazy about this shot's composition, I have a similar one with a better crop, but it's OOF Just couldn't win Basically, it was the first picture I exported to 3 TIFFs and dinked with and kinda like the result so I posted it.

I will edit out the hair across the face - it was somewhat windy and she was CONSTANTLY playing with her hair - to an irritating level.

I thought the abrupt crop on the bottom was annoying, but didn't pay any attention to the conneciton to the head/highlight area of the sky - didn't see any significance in that I guess.

After months of "funny procsessing", i'm sortof on an anti-vignette anti "funky color" campaign- this is my first "set" that it's effective on

Looking back now, I feel that #2 makes her look too "textury" and, like someone else said, is not as flattering IMO. If she were to make a large print, that may be better as it seems to have more detail. Not sure how to selectifly apply the effect as it was done in Photomatix and not Lr or Ps.

When I approach a shot like this I will spend time away from the camera. A really great technique is to cut out a 35mm frame out of a 8x10 piece of black plastic. Use this viewer to frame an image before picking up your camera. If you hold the card at arms length use a telephoto if the card is close to your face use a wide angle. The hardest thing to get through is the need to rush an image. Spend an hour walking looking for the best light, the best backdrop, etc and use the viewer to frame what you want.